“The flex circuits and different types of applications in the vehicle is nothing new to Lear even. We’ve actually used flex circuits in the past. We have the technology in our product portfolio. It is more expensive technology than traditional applications of wire,” Orsini said. “What we do well in the industry is we optimize the architecture … We don’t see the usage of wire shrinking. Wires are very secured way of connecting the signaling and data communication in the vehicle.”

So while flex circuits could affect future wiring production, some company executives think that it doesn’t pose a major threat.

Flex circuits are basically a circuit system that can be molded and changed into different shapes. Overall, it drastically reduces the amount of cables and wiring needed when producing big electric-based projects like an EV.

All the talk can be seen by Tesla fans as another way the company is pushing EV manufacturing into the future. Tesla has already had an impact on the auto market, with major automotive companies like BMW group and Volvo making the switch to electrified vehicles.

With flex circuits, the discussion can shift to how Tesla will impact production in the EV market as well. Based on CEO Elon Musk’s plans to vertically integrate all areas of vehicle production, implementing different wiring logistics could also impact how suppliers fit into the EV equation. Musk confirmed in during Tesla’s first quarter earnings call that the future Model Y compact SUV will utilize a new electrical system with significantly reduced wiring over previous models. This will enable faster manufacturing and an overall less complex design. Tesla’s flagship Model S and Model X have approximately 3 km of wiring within the vehicle, while Tesla’s highly anticipated Model 3 will have roughly half of that at 1.5km of wiring. Model Y on the other hand will only have 100m of wiring, a 95% reduction over Model 3.

As the Model 3 enters full-scale production, investors will get a chance to see just how big of an impact Tesla will have on EV manufacturing and the automotive industry as a whole.

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It only makes sense for there to be a common power bus for accessories to use, along with a common communications bus that tells the accessories to be on/off as opposed to running individual circuits for each accessory. There is of course the issue of common fusing, unless you fuse each accessory AT each accessory, which certainly could be done. At first blush this may make troubleshooting more cumbersome, but since the accessories would be communicating on a common communication bus, the main control system would know which system was not responding at all versus responding and malfunctioning, which would point to a loss of power. I'm sure until recently it was simpler to just throw more copper wire at the problem instead of having integrated circuits perform all of these actions, but when you're vertically integrated like Tesla, it's less of a problem.

Hopefully, this should significantly reduce manufacturing complexity, particularly where automation is increasingly involved. Whilst the part cost may be higher, the assembly cost should be much lower.